Luigi M. Verde

Bacon's Idols and Contemporary Art

In his Novum Organum of 1620, Francis Bacon identified four categories of idols, false notions that hinder authentic knowledge of reality. These idola represented four cognitive vices that prevented access to truth: the idola tribus (of the tribe), rooted in human nature; the idola specus (of the cave), deriving from individual inclinations; the idola fori (of the market), generated by social language; and the idola theatri (of the theater), produced by dominant philosophical systems. Looking at the panorama of contemporary art with the diagnostic acuity of the English philosopher, a worrying picture emerges: today's artistic system seems pervaded by mechanisms that closely resemble these ancient obstacles to knowledge.

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